Which portable power station brands do AI assistants actually recommend to US shoppers? We ran 75 buying-journey prompts through Google AI Overviews, Gemini and ChatGPT and tracked how often 18 brands were mentioned, and how often their own websites were cited as sources.
Key takeaways
- Four brands own the conversation. The other 14 brands combined earned 50 mentions, against 544 for the big four.
- Being named is not the same as being cited. Oupes is the exception that proves it: cited in 6% of responses but named in only 2%.
- Each platform cites a different web. Google AI Overviews lean on Google Shopping product cards, Gemini on third-party review sites, and ChatGPT on a mix of reviews and brand-owned product pages.
- The three platforms rarely agree. Only EcoFlow is named consistently across all three.
1. Overall AI visibility
We measured three things for each brand: the mention rate (share of responses naming the brand), the citation rate (share of responses linking to the brand's own website) and a combined visibility score. Use the buttons to switch metric and platform.
Visibility score = 1 − (1 − mention rate) × (1 − citation rate). Base: 198–199 responses per brand across all platforms.
- EcoFlow leads on every measure, followed by Jackery, Bluetti and Anker SOLIX. After that there is a cliff: Pecron, the best of the rest, scores under 10%.
- A typical response names about three tracked brands, and all four leaders appear together in 55 of the 201 responses.
- Goal Zero and DJI are well-known names in this category yet barely register. Growatt, Dabbsson, Lion Energy and Yoshino were not mentioned or cited once.
- EcoFlow is also the first brand named in 43% of responses, ahead of Jackery (24%), Anker SOLIX (16%) and Bluetti (14%).
- Switch to Google AIO and Anker SOLIX drops to fourth by a wide margin: Google's AI Overviews never cited an Anker SOLIX page. ChatGPT is by far the most generous with brand citations.
2. Mentions vs citations
A mention puts your brand in front of the user. A citation links to your website and tells you the AI is using your content as a source. The two don't always go together.
Share of AI responses. Brands with at least four mentions or citations shown.
- EcoFlow converts mentions into citations best. 26% of its mentions come with a link to its own site, against 17% for Bluetti and 12% for both Jackery and Anker SOLIX.
- Bluetti is cited more often than Jackery (11% vs 8.5% of responses) despite being mentioned less.
- Challengers get cited without being named. Ten of Oupes' 12 citations came in responses that never mentioned Oupes. DJI, AllPowers and Oukitel show the same pattern. Their cited pages are generic explainers such as "portable power station vs generator": the AI uses the content but doesn't credit the brand.
3. Visibility by prompt topic
Our 75 prompts were grouped into seven topic tags. Hover or tap a cell for the detail.
Each tag has 6–20 prompts, so treat the differences as directional.
- Home backup is EcoFlow's stronghold: 98% visibility and a 42% citation rate, its widest lead over rivals.
- Jackery leads on solar kits and charging (90% vs EcoFlow's 84%).
- Bluetti competes hard in RV, van and cabin use (86% vs EcoFlow's 90%).
- Anker SOLIX is strong on specs and support (80%) but weak on "Appliances and power needs" (31%).
- Purchase decisions is the most contested tag: EcoFlow 77%, the other three between 60% and 62%.
- The smaller brands only break through on spec and niche prompts: Pecron reaches 25% on capacity and features, AFERIY 22% on RV and van use, and Oupes 16% on solar kits. Home backup and camping are almost closed to them.
4. What gets cited
The three platforms cited 987 different URLs, 1,668 times in total, across 203 domains. What they cite differs sharply.
Google Shopping cards are product panels inside AI Overviews and Gemini that link to google.com, not to a brand or retailer.
- Google AI Overviews lean on Google itself. 54% of AIO citations point to Google Shopping product cards. Because those don't identify the brand, brand citation rates for AIO are probably understated.
- Gemini is the review-site platform: 65% of its citations go to independent publishers and buying guides.
- ChatGPT cites brand websites far more (35% of its citations): product and spec pages, manuals and warranty pages.
- YouTube and Reddit matter mainly in AI Overviews. 33 of the 36 YouTube URLs were cited by AIO.
- Amazon is almost absent (one URL), while Home Depot, Best Buy and Lowe's each appear.
- There's little overlap. Only 2 URLs and 10 of 190 non-Google domains were cited on all three platforms, and 76% of URLs were cited just once.
Most-cited domains
| Domain | Type | Citations | URLs | Platforms |
|---|
The single most-cited page is OutdoorGearLab's best power station guide: 35 citations across 18 different prompts, and one of only two URLs cited by all three platforms. PCMag, Practical Motorhome, CNET, TechRadar and Outside also feature strongly. Independent buying guides are the main way to earn visibility on Gemini and AI Overviews.
How brands' own content gets cited
Brand-owned URLs only. Labels show blog citations out of all citations to that brand's site.
- The smaller brands that appear at all do so through blog content. Every one of Oupes' 21 citations is a blog post, and the same goes for AllPowers, Oukitel and AFERIY.
- Among the leaders, Jackery is the only one with a heavy blog share (51%). Anker SOLIX is cited almost entirely through product pages, with just 5 of 37 citations from its blog.
- DJI's 11 citations all come from a single page, a UK store article comparing power stations with solar generators.
5. What ChatGPT's fan-out queries reveal
When ChatGPT searches the web, it rewrites the user's prompt into one or more "fan-out" search queries. We captured these for 10 purchase-decision prompts.
Prompt → ChatGPT fan-out query
- What is the best affordable portable power station for emergency home backup?best affordable portable power stations for emergency home backup 2026
- What is the best portable power station for both home backup and camping?best portable power station home backup camping EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus Anker SOLIX F2000 review 2026
- What is the best portable power station under $1,000?best portable power stations under $1000 2026 EcoFlow Delta 2 Max Bluetti AC200L Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus Anker Solix F2000
- What is the best portable power station under $2,000?best portable power stations under $2000 2026 EcoFlow Delta 2 Max Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus Anker Solix F2000 Bluetti AC200L
- What is the best portable power station under $500?best portable power station under $500 EcoFlow Jackery Anker Bluetti 2026
- What is the best portable solar generator to buy?best portable solar generators 2026 EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 Bluetti AC180P Anker Solix F2000
- What is the best solar generator kit with panels for under $1,000?best solar generator kit panels under $1000 2026 EcoFlow Delta 2 Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Anker Solix
- What is the best solar generator kit with panels for under $2,000?best solar generator kits under $2000 2026 EcoFlow Delta 2 Max Bluetti AC200L Anker F2000 Jackery 2000 Plus price solar panels
- Which portable power station brands are the most reliable?portable power station reliability EcoFlow Jackery Anker Bluetti reviews warranty battery cycle 2026
- Which portable power station is the best?best portable power station 2026 EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus Anker Solix C1000 Gen 2 Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus Bluetti AC180
- ChatGPT searches for what it already believes. Even a neutral question like "Which portable power station is the best?" becomes a search for four specific brands and models. The results then largely confirm the shortlist it started with.
- Seven of the ten queries name specific models, such as the EcoFlow Delta 2 Max, Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus, Anker SOLIX F2000 and Bluetti AC200L.
- No challenger brand appears in any query. If a brand isn't in the model's prior shortlist, it isn't in the search, which limits what traditional SEO on generic terms can achieve.
- Recency is built in. Every query adds "2026", but only 38 of the 531 non-Google URLs cited carry "2026" in the URL. Content that is clearly dated to the current year is well placed.
Caveat: one query per prompt, 10 prompts, one tag. Treat this as an indication rather than a firm finding.
6. Other patterns in the data
The platforms disagree more than they agree
The 51 prompts where all three platforms returned an answer.
- EcoFlow is the only brand named consistently: by all three platforms for 57% of prompts.
- Anker SOLIX is the most platform-dependent. For 45% of prompts only one platform named it.
- For the same prompt, two platforms named exactly the same set of brands only 9–15% of the time. A single blended visibility number hides a lot, so track each platform separately.
Google AI Overviews don't appear for every prompt
AI Overviews appeared for all seven prompts that began "Should I…", "Is it…" or "Is a…", and for 80% of purchase-decision prompts. They appeared for only 38% of capacity and features prompts. Most of the 26 prompts without an Overview were specific spec or use-case questions (running a fridge or window AC, units under 20 lb, LiFePO4, overlanding). That's exactly where smaller brands have their best chance, but on Google those searches return no AI answer at all.
Price-qualified prompts reshuffle the leaders
Eight prompts, such as "best portable power station under $500" or "best budget portable power station". About 24 responses per brand, so treat this as a hypothesis.
Bluetti gains when price enters the question, while Anker SOLIX loses the most ground, which is surprising given Anker's value positioning. The smaller, cheaper brands barely benefit: Pecron reaches 10%, Oupes 5%.
Which models get named
| Brand | Most-named models (share of responses) |
|---|---|
| EcoFlow | Delta Pro 3 (16%), Delta 2 Max (13%), Delta 3 Plus (11%), Delta Pro (10%) |
| Jackery | Explorer 1000 v2 (17%), Explorer 2000 v2 (17%), HomePower 3600 (12%), Explorer 2000 Plus (10%) |
| Bluetti | AC180 (20%), Elite 200 V2 (15%), AC200L (11%) |
| Anker SOLIX | C180 (13%), C1000 (13%), F3800 (12%) |
- ChatGPT favours newer models. It named the EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus and Delta 3 Max in 13 responses each; Google AI Overviews never mentioned the Delta 3 Max.
- Jackery's HomePower 3600 is a Google-only story: 22 mentions across AI Overviews and Gemini, none in ChatGPT.
Model counts come from a text match on the AI responses and are approximate.
Brands we didn't track are getting cited
Zendure, Sapphire Battery, Erayak and BougeRV all appear among the cited sources despite not being on our list of 18 brands. Sapphire Battery's solar recharging guide alone earned 11 citations.
What this means for brands
- Get into the independent buying guides. OutdoorGearLab, PCMag, CNET and similar review sites feed Gemini and AI Overviews, and they are how brands enter the AI's shortlist.
- Make product, spec and warranty pages easy to cite. ChatGPT links to them directly.
- Pair helpful content with clear branding. Explainer content earns citations, but challengers need their brand and products named in it to turn those citations into mentions.
- Target the niche questions. Specific appliance, capacity and use-case prompts are where the leaders' grip is weakest.
- Measure each platform separately. They cite different sources and name different brands.
Methodology and caveats
- 75 prompts across seven tags, run once each on Google AI Overviews, Gemini and ChatGPT on 29 September 2026. Sessions were logged out, via the web interface rather than the API, and geo-targeted to the US. Results may differ for logged-in users or API access.
- Google AI Overviews appeared for 49 of the 75 prompts, giving 198–199 responses per brand.
- This is a single snapshot, so it shows no trend or run-to-run variation.
- Cited URLs in the source data cannot be tied back to specific prompts or brands.
- Fan-out queries were only available from ChatGPT, for 10 prompts.
- Model-level counts are based on text matching and are approximate.
